Granted Funded Programs

The Community Resource Adoptive and Foster Family Training initiative is a statewide program whose primary focus is training and supporting resource, foster, kinship, and adoptive families throughout Virginia. The state is divided into six service areas and each area has a designated CRAFFT coordinator who works at a state University within/bordering the service area. The two coordinators, serving the Western and Piedmont areas of Virginia, work at our School of Social Work with the ICF. The goals of the CRAFFT program are directly related to state program improvement goals that focus on better outcomes for children in our foster care system.

The Title IV-E Child Welfare Stipend Program (CWSP) is a partnership between the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) and four public universities in Virginia, George Mason, Norfolk State, Radford, and Virginia Commonwealth Universities, offering accredited Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) and Master of Social Work (MSW) programs. The CWSP is supported by federal funding through title IV-E of the Social Security Act plus a state match provided by VDSS. The CWSP is based on a framework that incorporates state and national standards for child welfare practice. CWSP students receive financial support, opportunities to complete VDSS training, specialized coursework and topical seminars, and gain local department of social services (LDSS) field experience in return for a legally binding commitment to work in foster care, adoption or in-home services in a LDSS in Virginia following graduation. 

The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) offers a Child Welfare Employee Education Assistance Program (CWEEAP), in order to provide funding and specialized child welfare training to full-time local department of social services (LDSS) staff who are enrolled in a part-time MSW program and committed to working in public child welfare in foster care/adoption following graduation.